first Anime Girls Love But Guys Hate
1. Uta no Prince sama
yeah i will admit... i enjoy this show... it's so incredibly stupid but at the same time it's really fun... but completely devoid of plot and full of pretty boys... so i can see why it wouldn't appeal to men... but i don't think it's really trying.
2. K
only seen art for this and it looked interesting but other then that i have no opinion.
3. Kuroko's Basketball
guys don't like this show? i mean... it's a shonen sports anime... yes it has an oddly high female fanbase but that shouldn't mean guys dislike it.
4. Prince of tennis
i know so many people who are obsessed with this show.... i can't stand it.
5. Black butler
i don't get the appeal... but i haven't watched the show so i can't really give more of an opinion... just doesn't look like it would appeal to me.
6. Hakuoki
it's based on a reverse harem game... not trying to win over then men... other then that the show was average... good music though.
7. hetalia axis power
too be honest i wont watch this show cause the fanbase kinda scares me... other then that i have no opinion.
8. Gintama
i made it 5 mins into the first ep.... just not for me
9. Starry sky
liek uta pri this show is so silly but kinda fun... still didn't watch it all
10. Sengoku Basara
never heard of it
11. Durarara!
guys don't like this show? really? i kinda thought it was targeted at them... oh well i enjoyed it... great use of non-linear story telling
12. Miracle train.
no....
no that show was terrible
like... tedious and boring and stupid and terrible
you would think you could personify anything as a hot bi-shonen.... but not trains.... it's litetrally an anime tellign you the rules of riding on the train
i wish i was kidding
13. Rebron!
another scary fanbase... another show i don't plan on watching.
14. daily lives of highschool boys.
looks kinda stupid... but i haven't seen it so i can't really comment.
15. Inozuma elevin
not into sports anime
16. Magi
this shwo was fun... probably wont continue on but i had a good time with what i saw.. .considering all the fanservice i'm surprised it doesn't have a larger male following.
17. Amnesia
no... i don't think anyone could actually like this tripe... one of the worst shows i have ever seen in my life.... my review of it made me miserable for days.... i was broken that this piece of crap was so popular and that being kidnapped and put in a cage was somehow romantic and not stolckholm syndromish at all. *pants*
18. Tiger and bunny
scary fandom yet again... nice animation though.
19. Blue exorcist
another shonen title that happens to have a large famle fanbase... but i didn't think that would make men dislike it... it's really well done.
20 Togainu no Chi
never heard of it.
21. Code Geass
yeah strangely large female fanbase... maybe cause clamp helped with designs? i dunno... kinda just a mediocre show in my opinion... better then deathnote though.
22. Saiyuki.
4 pretty boys travel to china.... why wouldn't men like this? again though it's just a mediocre show that takes too long to get to the point.
23. detective conan
never seen it but yeah i'm always surprised to hear how crazy the fans can get for it.
24. Karneval
another show i was curious about but never had the chance to watch.
25. Natsume yuujinchou.
okay... so far the only people i know who have watched it have been girls.
however.... i don't think it's a show guys would dislike.... i'll have to do some experiments *can't imagine anyone disliking this show*

Anime Guys Love and Girls Hate
1. magical girl lyrical nanoha
never seen it but it looked too fanservicy for me so i get why it's on the list.
2. the idol m@ster
i do have a friend who is obsessed with this and the games..... i don't get it personally
3. to love ru
more fanservice... no shit girls wouldn't like it...
4. Girls und panzer
fanservice
5. Strike witches
Fanservice for both mech and animal ears.
6. oreimo
really creepy brother sister relationship and fanservice...
7. Photo kano
Really creepy photography club and fanservice.
8. Sword art online.
i actually loved the first half of this show... you know... until they turned asuna into a moe blob and disregarded kiritos character development and tried to rape asuna with tenticles many times.... so yeah... no shiut girls wont like this... not to mention creepy brother sister stuff... adopted or not creepy all the same.
9. Nyarko - san
i don't get it... not my cup of tea,
10. Hagenai
love the character design but fanservicy.
11. Puella magi Madoka magica
wait.... guys like this more then girls?
what?
i've found it's just something everyone likes
except the people who got eaten down by all the hype and went in expecting too muhc.
12. Saki
ugh... so moe... i htink i'll be sick...
13. yuri yuri
so much damn moe
14 Oniai
oh... i've never heard of this... but that title... *checks it on My anime list* incestuous.... ew... it's; just so gross.
15 infinite stratos
more fanservice..
16. Love live
i had fun with this show... creepy 3d dancing aside.
17. vividred operation
loli fanservice....
18. Henneko
it's just too silly... i did watch an ep of it but it just wasn't very good...
19 A Certain Magical Index
i think it looks good... i haven't seen it though.
20 Minami-ke
what is wrong with that girls hair.... this show gives me a kind of k-on vibe... though i don't know... ahevn't watched it and don't plan to.
21. A Certain Scientific Railgun
again this looks good i just haven't seen it yet
22. The ambitions of Oda Nobunaga
ugh i hate oda nobunaga genderflips... just so stupid.
23. Oreshura
this show lost me once it started adding characters... and one of my guy friends hated it so.... i dunno doesn't seem to popular.
24. Hidamari Sketch
not a fan of the art but looks harmless enough.
25. bakemonogatari
girls hate this show cause it's creepy....

many months ago a friend of mine told me how one of his fav slice of life/shoujo anime series is Toradora! I had heard about it and seen character designs but it never interested me enough to seek it out. i knew NISA had a box set for it but as much as i love anime i'm actually not a fan of blind buying cause my tastes are so specific and i have been burned many times.

Still he said i should come over and watch it cause he happened to own the premium edition (or at least his brother did, the two of them kinda share their collection) so i did and got a few episodes in and it was okay... the animation while very emotive had some quirks that annoy me (read as their mouths go really far down their face and any high action is heavily smudged and floaty) still the story seemed to be fairly sweet.

Tall scary looking guy Ryuji is in love with captain of the softball team/oddball genki girl Minori.
Monori's best friend is Petite but powerful Taiga who despite her cute face is quite vicoius... Taiga has a huge crush on the class president Kitamura who happens to be ryuji's best friend.

also apparently Ryuji and Taiga are neighbors.
hijinks ensue.

so i think i ended up watching 4 or 5 eps at his place before i had to leave....
and then our schedules never managed to mesh again.... i had work, he had class so i was doomed never to finish this series.

that is until Crunchyroll started putting up some NISA titles, what they do is to avoid makign people blind buy they put up the first 6 episodes for free and to see the rest you need to be a subscriber. On both NISA's side and Chrunchyroll's side i personally ADORE this idea and when Natsume Yujinchou season 4 and Hanasaku iroha second half release i probably will tack on toradora standard edition to my oder (unless it's sold out...)

anyways wonderful business partnerships aside... what did i think of the show.

for most of it i was on the fence... i have watched a lot of shojo, some good.... most terrible and cheesy and horrible depictions of love...
so when i heard, boy and girl help each other get with their best friends.... you know EXACTLY where thats going to go.... theres only one place for that story to go.

so i figues i'd would be like 13 episodes of them trying to hook the other up... them gettign what they want only to reaslise they wanted each other the whole time.

and.... then that didn't happen... so that got me intrigued but i still had issues.

it is still harem-esque that so many girls like Ryuji.... but it's not handled like other shows... it's handled in a way of how do i show i still care without stepping on my friends teos and destroying that relationship... how do i call out others bullshit without being hated by them.

the pacing was slow but it made the shift in characterization more palatable cause it wasn't like one second they like one character and the next they like someone else.
it grew as we got to learn more about these characters.

after the 20th episode or so the show finally got me to cry... so yeah really glad i didn't watch it at my friends cause i HATE crying infront of people and i'm a big crybaby so... watching sad stuff makes it tricky.... but the moments that made me cry were genuine... they weren't like "oh we're going to do something tragic and that'll make you cry" it's just... characters reacting to information... or saying something and seeing the pain in their face... all done through animation more so then actual dialogue. It was different from most other shoujo's i've seen that rely on tragedy or sparkles to convey emotions.

so yeah....

The good:
emotive characters who aren't overly perfect or overly flawed who feel like they could exist in this universe.
subtle but appropriate music throughout the show though i'm not a fan of the first intro
both a very small and a very large cast... you get to know the bulk of students in the class and you can see their motivations and stories.

the not so good:
pacing is a bit odd... i htink some of the later stuff coudl have been hinted at a little sooner but this is such a minor gripe.
again animation not my fav but for this show it works pretty damn well.

the bad:
on character who had one of the more interesting arc kinda gets pushed to the side and i really feel bad for her : (
but again thats just me empathizing for the unloved character.
oh... and that ugly bird gives me nightmares..... scary scary thing...

Seriously though pick this show up if you can and you like slice of life/shojo, if you are unsure go watch the first 6 free episodes over at crunchyroll... cause it's free so why not? Here's the link so go enjoy.

i have 5 chibi's to finish, a painting to paint, a book to read and a burned finger to tend to... so i'll see you guys later!

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

i have been trying to sketch more despite crazy hectic life and of of the things that are probably the quickest things i make are busts. so i actually made one i kinda liked.

and i thought it may make a good example of what you'll get for a bust commission cause currently waiting for work to come to town and i would like to have some money coming in while i wait.

but what colours to pick.... i've been doing a lot of blue and purple lately so.... lets avoid that.... just to push myself.... and i have a lot of blond and brunette characters.... and pink hair has al;so been common since i have done godoka, chibi chibi and tutu..... so all that remains is Green and Orange.
but....... i'm not a fan of either of those colours... still.... i have so few characters with even a hint of orange.... i guess i'll go with that.

so then i do the flat colour and thing.... the hair is kinda.... missing something.... yeah it's all swirly ut can't i do more?
so i decide that because of that trend right now were hair is fading to blond.... i'd do it.... but blond wouldn't be so fun.... so i try a few colours and pink was hte one i would have the most fun with.

also i took away the wings cause i didn't like how i had them going off the edge in the sketch

ah it's nice doing super colourful stuff.... limited pallets are great but this kind of thing is what makes me so happy.

As i mentioned before i did this to partially advertize that i will do commissions like this and you can find more info here.
but yeah this was simple quick and fun and i hope you like it.

Monday, 20 May 2013

i was gunna call this something like princess tutu but you know what? thats a boring title....
also play this i should explain it be the end of this process work segment.

for those who haven't seen the anime.... and seriously if you haven't.... go watch it... yes it has the world record for dumbest title but it is one of the best anime out there in my opinion. yes... the first chunk is really silly but when it gets to the halfway point it changes and if you can make it there... the story only continues to get better.

anyways for those who haven't seen the anime the story is basically about a duck... who turns into a girl names duck.... who turns into princess tutu who must return the shards of the princes heart to him without confessing her love and vanishing into a speck of light.

wait! seriously.... i know it sounds really dumb.... but i rewatch this show every few months just cause every single time i see more of the symbolism and dmmit the show is amazing.

each episode has it's own score and fairytale/opera/ballet that it's based loosely on.
my favorite episode is Scheherazade.... it uses the piece above as the overarching theme and the tune eventually becomes the theme that plays when a certain character is on screen.

this is probably my all time favorite classical piece. i just love everything about it... so the fact that one of the most touching episodes revolves around it... but i'm getting off track...

So.... the more i like something the harder it is for me to do fan art of it....
still i tried.... i had been looking up ballet positions in hopes of getting inspiration for estelles next piece but instead i drew tutu....
i actually do this a lot.... mid pic i'll decide it's a different character and just go from there.

really rough but i knew i could flesh it out in photoshop cause i'm lazy like that so i inked and coloured and yeah.... tutu has a really simple design so it was pretty quick.. didn't even take process work shots... oops.

so yeah loosely based off the events of that episode.... that seriously even just thinking about it bring the biggest smile to my face....
in fact i'm gunna go rewatch the show now.... cause i can/want to.
maybe i'll draw duck soon.... thats the girl named duck... not the duck itself.
or fakir
or mythos...
dammit why do i enjoy this show so much?

anyways hope you like this... and the show... and the music i posted at the top.

Sunday, 19 May 2013

first just to get it out of the way, i hate sci-fi and the only reason i saw this film was because i wasn't paying.

That being said i enjoyed it.
no panic attacks
great music
fun characters with great personality.
decent pacing
lots of action but not so much that you tune it out.

yeah lots of good things to say.

not everything is perfect.
I can't say any of the plot and have it continue to be spoiler free.... so this review will be short.
the lens flare while not as prominent as the first one still overpower most of the scenes.
went a certain character is revealed you know EXACTLY whats coming up next..... even if you barely remember any star trek from your childhood (apparently i watched t as a kid... do not remember any of it)
in fact a lot of things are so blatantly set up that it was almost insulting to the audience... but overall not bad.

I saw it in 2d.... i suggest seeing it in 2d cause i can imagine those lens flares get more annoying in the third dimension.

but yeah.... this one gets to show of it's characters more then the first which is great....

again in the end i had a good time but i don't wanna say much more then that.

completely unrelated side not some of the sets on this must have been so much fun to make.

I would love to describe the story but i doubt i could do it justice so i will grossly simplify.
This story is about a Soul being reincarnated over time and how it connects to the souls around them over the course of Humanity.

Saturday, 18 May 2013

So... first time i saw this was way before i went to Art college myself.
i didn't think about it much because other then the fact these people are all artists of varying skill the fact that they are students really affects nothing.

still... i really loved this show....

and to this day i can't pinpoint why.

This is the slice of life-iest show i have.

but it still, kinda, has a plot.

bare bones of the plot is these people who are friends through school deal with love and dealing with school and finding who you are as a person and as an artist.

but on this watching i added a little twist.... cause i couldn't help it.
Yuta Takemoto is voice by Hiroshi kamiya
same guy who did Natsume voice.

So natsume, after dealing with learning how to ride a bike from his friends goes to tokyo art school and falls in love.
he can't see yokai anymore but he still loves cats.

okay i'll stop but it was seriosuly hard for me to rewatch this show without seeing natume in Yuta's place.

still i find this show deals with a lot of things really well, unrequited love, confused love... finding yourself... i just really like it.

but i can see that it's not for everyone cause in the end theres not much point for it... especially by the end of season 1 nothing much is accomplished.
season 2 changes that but i don't have it in my possession for now so.... yeah...

but yeah i love this show, the first ending song is one of my all time favs and theres just something about it that makes me smile.

not my normal type of review but oh well.

oh one this i will say, one of the prettiest shows in my collection... just... every frame is so lovely.

Friday, 17 May 2013

So, i'm in a bit of a slump lately...
"but Kat" i hear you all cry out. "You said art block doesn't exist!"
yep... cause it doesn't... Art block suggests that you can't physically draw despite being healthy enough to draw (read as not lying comatose in a hospital) and this simply isn't true. you are always capable of drawing something.... you just may not be happy with what your producing or you may not be coming up with any ideas.
This is called a slump and/or hitting a wall.
it almost always means you are getting more critical of your work and theres almost always a large improvement shortly after you beat the slump into the ground. not always but I find the only way to get out of a slump is to produce something i'm happy with.

but maybe that's just me...

so anyways... i've been in a slump for a week or so and drawn two full pages of chibis and a bust of my character niut and i still wasn't happy....
so i though i could draw the next picture in the Estelle Series.
ah but what to do for a pose?
i start thumb nailing (i would show my thumbnails but they are incomprehensible/ done in col erase which doesn't seem to scan despite being red.) and one of them for fun was a mermaid.
this mermaid specifically

and i though... well... Estelle was a one off that i turned/am turning into a series.... why can't this mermaid become one too?
oh shoot but she's based 'loosly' on the little mermaid.... i should be in public domain but you never know cause of disney *quick search later* nope... completely public domain... YAY as long as i don't allude to anything disney like it should be fine.

ah but i can't keep calling her Seafoam... *goes on baby name sites that she frequents a lot for character names) Nerina - Water Nymph.
works for me~

so i do a quick sketch... again abusing the poor col erase but it just erases so much cleaner then pencil so it's great for figuring out the pose.

problem 1 - ran ouf of room on the page cause of the tail....
problem 2 - how am i going to ink this.... oh no... this si going to be one of the experiments with transparencies isn't it.... oh boy... should be fun.
Problem 3 - Scales... ugh...

still i brought it into photoshop, gave myself more room to work and started playing around...
and in the end i had a lot of fun
has it kicked me out of my slump? no but i think the slump has more to do with the fact theres a book i really want to read but haven't had any time for and for the moment i rather be reading then drawing, but drawing is always more important so... i tend to fill my free time with drawing *sighs*.... but once i finish that book i'll be back to my crazy drawing self.

so... since every pick i've posted with Nerina i've shown a lineless version.

as much as i love the lineless version i'm just a pig fan of lines... can't help it.

i just feel like it helps add another layer of depth... still this was a lot of fun and probably one of my fav experiments... dunno if i'm actually make it into a series.... but i probably will. or now though there is an Aaron Pogue novel thats sitting at around 20% finished and thats just not good enough.

oh quick note before i go, when i had life drawing my favorite poses were always of the back... i know most people hated them since it doesn't have as many landmarks as the front but i dunno... always found it fun... so yeah... that's probably why in the past year or so i've done a lot of pictures from a back angle.
ok reading time~

Friday, 10 May 2013

i thin this may have the most pictures.
"But Kat!" i hear you cry out. "you hated the kid Icarus games!"

yes i did.... but i love the character design... the gameplay was just broken...

anyways when they first went for sale i was only going to get dark pit
but then i caved and got both cause i'm weak...

look at that goofy grin
i actually don't like htis face but every time i touch him his lower half seems to come off so scre it... he's stuck in his pose cause i'm lazy.
still i did change his pose a lot for he shots~

he's goign to remain in that bottom pose

some close ups middle one is probably my fav of that batch.

eh came with a little moster, the eye actually moved around which is pretty fun.

now to dark pit or Pitoo which is such a stupid name.

i love his facial expression, just not goofy which is great... i coudl also move him more without him falling apart at the waist so bonus points.

i do wish both had more articulation in the feet... oh well~
close up time!

Ah i love close up with shallow depth of field... had way too much fun with these.

now the two together!

the problem with taking a picture with a shallow depth of field with lots of levels is that there more chance for blurry... and i couldn't find my tripod so i just did my best~

more close ups~
and that final one from a slightly different angle to get more in focus.

alright that'll do it for this photoshoot... i hope to do more tomorrow... we'll see if i follow though... but i do have my setup all there so yeah... very high chance.

but still when i saw this figure was on back order... i decided why not?

this was probably the most fun character in the series though i do wish we got a little more explanation for why i like making humans suffer so much... maybe i'll get it if i read the manga?

anyways scale figures are easier to take pics of then poseable ones (in my opinion) and he has two variations... Knife and Cellphone... i plan to keep him with Cellphone and he's kind of coming out from behind my Cintiq, makes me smile~

i just love the movement in his coat... but yeah he looks like he's gunan cut something open... oh no~
but yeah speakign of the coat.

but yeah i so like Cellphone version just a bit more.

other then that not much to say about the figure... i'm just happy to be able to add another male figure to my collection... and i got pit and dark pit so in one day... lots of male characters~

It's no secret that i like figures... the very instant you walk into my room you are greeted by hundreds of plastic eyes...
still this month was the most figures i had bought at once....
thanks Ami ami... just take all my money.
today 4 figures arrived...
Godoka Nendo
Pit and Dark pit Figmas
and a scale Orihara Izaya.

so last time i got a package from ami ami (godoka figma and nendo Asuna) i didn't take any pictures cause i didn't have my normal place to set up... so this batch is kinda improvised and occasionally there is glare from one of the lights i'm using... sorry i really just wanted to have fun with this and wasn't really payign as much attention as i needed to..

ok so yeah... photoheavy journal.

dawwww innit she cute?
at first i couldn't find the spear base cover thingy... and it was between the backdrop that comes with the figure and the box it's in.... still lov being able to ocver up the plain base you get with nendos (the basses are fine i just think this is fun)

so here are some of the poses you can put her in, even though it's probably the planest i plan to keep it in the first one... just less things to mess with... as much as i love the wings wow they were a pain in the ass... they stick into her hair and a tricky to get to angle and fall out if you look at them wrong... maybe i just didn't get it in properly but i worries that i was going to break them.

this is probably my favortie pose but since the wings come out of the hair it's a little awkward

my two fav shots of her are both super close ups. still i just think it's such a cute figure.

but to be completely honest.... i didn't get her because i enjoyed Puella Magi Madoka Magica...
no i got her to do this

and this

and this too

but Kat... why on earth did you want to put Kyons head of Godoka?
cause i like and have always liked the idea that Kyon is really god in haruhi suzumiya... not her... so.... here's godokyon... kyod... hm...
well anyways i just thught it would be worth a laugh... if only to me.

so yeah... i plan to do more nendo swapping tomorrow since pretty much all nendos can interchange with each other as shown above.

for now though i have two more of these to make... next will be the scale figure~

Sunday, 5 May 2013

i don't have many wip shots for this cause i forgot to snap them but still i'll talk a little about the process and specifically thing character.

First i did a batch of 9 chibis to kick a slump and it was based off characters i had only drawn once.
Esetelle.... doesn't techncially count cause she's actually getting her own series.... but hey... my batch o' chibis my rules.

out of the nine she was the first i drew...
and probably the one i was happiest with.
i sitll may do one or two more of these but i'll probably just move onto something else.

anyways Estelle is fun cause she came out of nowhere.
one day i wanted to draw a horizontal piece in my little sketchbook.

i Called it wishing star since in my mind thats what she is... a star that grants wishes hence the long tale/collar thing and the skirt which i tries to make have 5 points like your standard cartoon star.
at the time it was just a fun experiment but i thought nothing of it.
until recently when i decided well... let say the wish gets granted... what happens.

the mood is happy cause everyoen is happy when things work out...
but then i got to thinking... the wish can't last forever... either time will pass and the wish wil lhave been forgotten altogether or shit would hit the fan and the wish maker may curse the stars...
so... i may draw her again... infact i'd be surprised if i didn't

also random note she's actually become a character in one of my roleplays... which is always fun.

of course this chibi has nothing to do with that.... i just have nothing much to say other then originally the beads were yellow but it was too much so i changed them to blue and the staf she's holding is something i forgot and drew in at the last second... like after i had finished everything else and noticed how stupid i had been.

but yeah heres the final product... pretty different from the sketch but still i had a lot of fun.

even after i finish her series i probably will continue to draw her but for now... this is what i have, enjoy~

About Me

I am an artist who enjoys reading and playing games, I probably spend too much time on the computer and i like to share my opinion on things i finish. If you have any suggestions of things i should read/watch or play please feel free to let me know.